These are the sermons that I preach each week. And some other things, too.

Monday, February 13, 2017

State of the Church

How Do We Become Whole People?

Jesus has come so that we can become whole people. And that’s a process that we are to continually work at. How do we do that? Here’s one thing: to continually work at friendships. Here’s something to help us understand what to aim at. ‘A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.’ Proverbs 17.17

To really get this, we need to be clear on that word ‘love’. This is more than being nice or being someone to hang out with. The people who truly love us are people we know that we can depend on - like in times of adversity. And if we are going to be real friends to others we need to love like this.

But please note that if we’re going to be able to love people in this way, we will need to know them, really know them. Real friends know each other. So, how do we do that?

First, we need to listen. We need to listen to what people are saying. We need to listen for what they’re not saying. We need to listen to what’s behind the words. We need to listen.

Then, we need to ask good questions. The fact is that people want to be heard. They want to tell you about what really matters to them. But they are afraid to do that. What if they open up a bit, and you don’t care or you step all over something that is precious to them? But the right questions will show them that it’s okay to talk about these things. It tells them that you will listen and treat what they treasure with care.

We might need to be gently persistent in pursuing this. Most people are used to others not caring to listen. We’ll need to gain each others’ trust.

Oh, and by the way, this used to be called fellowship before that word was re-defined to something about coffee and donuts.